The Gist conundrum

Fact: The Spurs consider Gist to be a part of their plans down the road.

Opinion: Gist is probably good enough to make an NBA roster right now.

Two facts, one opinion, all of which adds up to one more counterintuitive fact: James Gist won’t play for the Spurs this season.

Gist, the Spurs’ second-round pick in 2008, was denied an invitation to training camp for the second summer in a row. He was denied an invitation precisely because the Spurs believe all of the above.

It’s a simple matter of arithmetic. The Spurs have 14 players with guaranteed contracts in camp. They can only keep 15 players. The final spot is likely to come down to a battle between Malik Hairston and Marcus Williams.

By leaving Gist unsigned and likely allowing him to sharpen his game overseas for another season, they retain his NBA rights.

In an alternate universe somewhere, the Spurs sign Gist to a training camp contract and he doesn’t make the team due to an already loaded frontcourt. The Spurs are forced to waive him, which in turn makes him available to every other team in the NBA.

It is precisely because they think so highly of him that the Spurs didn’t invite Gist to camp.

Meanwhile, his exclusion underscores the competitiveness of the Spurs’ current camp. The team sincerely believes all 18 players here are good enough to play in the NBA. The fight for the final spot could be a battle royale.

“We’ll do it like ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ ” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We could have a vote for who is going to stay.”

The disheartening thing is, the three players who don’t make the cut could have trouble latching on elsewhere. Though the Spurs are expected to fill a full 15 roster spots, more teams will keep fewer players due to the sluggish economy.

One Western Conference owner is rumored to have asked his front office if they could live with 13 players in training camp (the answer, of course, was no).

“The way the league is, there aren’t going to be many teams carrying 14 or 15 people, just because of economics,” Popovich said. “There may be some guys out of a job in the league this year that were on a team last year.”

In a way, Gist is one of the lucky ones. He isn’t on an NBA team, but there is still the possibility of an NBA job in his future someday.